In the United States, telephone service was historically provided almost exclusively by American Telephone and Telegraph, Inc. (now AT&T). Following the deregulation of the telephone industry in 1984, AT&T was limited to providing long distance telephone service, and local telephone service was thereafter provided by the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), such as Bell Atlantic and Southern New England Telephone (now SNET). Thus, following deregulation, the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) initially served as the exclusive local exchange carriers (LECs), and maintained the subscriber loop between the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and each individual telephone subscriber. As competition in all segments of the telephone industry increases, however, other companies are poised to provide telephone service.
The increasing demand for high-speed data transmission has further increased the demand for access in the local loop. Thus, there is a corresponding increase in the number of service providers attempting to provide direct service to customers. In order to permit competition in the local telephone market, the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) were required to unbundle their subscriber loop, such that the Competing Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) and other service providers can access the subscriber. Typically, the unbundling occurs along the subscriber loop, between the LEC's Central Office and the subscriber's equipment, with a costly hard-wired connection. With the increasing popularity of wireless networks, however, there are new opportunities for a service provider to access a customer without requiring a wired connection to the local loop of each subscriber.
Thus, service providers are aggressively pursuing several different wired and wireless access technologies that allow them to provide service to customers in a cost effective and efficient manner, including enhanced copper (xDSL), cable networks (HFC), 3G mobile wireless platforms, fiber optics, satellite broadband networks and fixed wireless broadband (FWB) systems. Fixed wireless broadband systems have been found to be particularly beneficial for new market entrants who do not have an existing local loop infrastructure. Among other benefits, fixed wireless broadband access networks can be deployed quickly and relatively inexpensively, offering new service providers a viable means of accessing the local subscribers.
While these emerging access technologies possess many advantages for building local access networks, they pose unique challenges for market and network planners. For example, the service provider is faced with uncertainty in the types of services required, their bandwidth over time, and the specific locations of customers that may require such services. Before the first customer can even be signed up, the service provider must typically prioritize the areas to proceed in and obtain sufficient real estate and spectrum assets for the required network elements.
Thus, before proceeding in a given new market, the service provider must perform a detailed analysis of the market to evaluate the costs and benefits of proceeding in the market. For a service provider that is interested in serving only commercial customers, the service provider typically identifies existing commercial buildings, and obtains information about the tenants and their telecommunication needs. A forecast can be generated based on existing models that correlate, for example, between industry codes, number of employees and annual revenues to predict the telecommunication needs of each potential customer.
In addition, the network infrastructure required to support the forecasted customer base must also be engineered, so that an estimate of the corresponding costs for the network infrastructure can be generated. Generally, the network planner must determine the appropriate size, location, and timing of required network components that minimizes the business risk and satisfies the bandwidth requirements. The number and location of nodes in a broadband network typically have a cascading impact on equipment costs within the nodes and on transmission costs from the individual nodes to a centralized node that connects to other networks, such as the PSTN. Therefore, the network planner must quantify the overall cost for each network configuration option that is examined. In this manner, the service provider can make an informed decision about whether to proceed in a given market and can prioritize markets, market strategies and customer segments.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional fixed wireless broadband network 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the fixed wireless broadband network 100 generally consist of one or more service nodes (SN), such as the service node 110, and hubs nodes, such as the hub nodes 120-1 through 120-3 (hereinafter, collectively referred to as hub nodes 120). The centrally located service node 110 serves as a gateway to other networks, such as the Internet 140, the PSTN 150, or other service nodes 160. A service node 110 contains the centralized switching and routing equipment, as well as service-specific servers, in a known manner. Traffic flows from the service node 110 to the intermediate hub nodes 120 located near end-user buildings, such as end-user buildings 125-1 through 125-N (hereinafter, collectively referred to as end-user buildings 125). Hub nodes 120 contain point-to-point or point-to-multipoint wireless base stations that communicate with the multiple end-user buildings 125. Multiplexing and transmission equipment in the hub nodes 120 concentrates traffic to provide more economical transmission to the service node 110. A wireless connection 122 is typically used to connect the end-user building 125 to the corresponding hub node 120. The hub-to-service node connection typically utilizes a wireline link 115, such as a fiber connection. For a more detailed discussion of the elements in a fixed wireless broadband network, see, for example, Martin P. Clarke, “Wireless Access Networks,” John Wiley & Sons, 2000, incorporated by reference herein.
A need therefore exists for an improved method and apparatus for analyzing and designing various network configuration scenarios. A further need exists for a network planning tool that analyzes the effects of variations in service demand on equipment configurations and network topology; analyzes the costs and benefits of a given configuration; and provides necessary information for implementing a desired configuration.